Lopez Museum features indie filmmaker Raya Martin in Artist’s Talk

Lopez Memorial Museum welcomes acclaimed experimental filmmaker Raya Martin, who will discuss the relation between film and history and other aspects of independent film in the Philippines on July 18, 2009. The 25-year old Martin is the first Filipino to be accepted at the prestigious Cinefondation Residence of the Cannes Film Festival and the first Filipino to have two entries at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival (Independencia and Manila).

Martin says, “The history of our cinema tells the history of our country. Movies become historical accounts of a people’s struggle in a particular period. When a movie studio ceases to exist, it marks the death of an historian. What we are left with are the memories of a memory maker. We only stand before what was there that was not ours.”

His video installation called “WMB” is one of the featured works in the exhibition Double Take, which is ongoing at the Lopez Memorial Museum’s main gallery until September 25, 2009. He will be using Huk sa Bagong Pamumuhay, a production of LVN Pictures, as he goes into the history of film.

Born in 1984, Martin graduated in 2005 from the University of the Philippines Film Institute with a degree in filmmaking.He has been receiving accolades for his work at a very young age. In 2004, his short film Bakasyon won the Ishmael Bernal Award for Young Cinema at the Cinemanila International Film Festival and his documentary on Batanes called The Island at the End of the World won best Documentary film prize at the .mov 2005 film festival. Also in 2005, he completed his first feature film Indio Nacional. In the same year, he was granted a prestigious residency in Paris at the CineFondation, a program for young filmmakers organized under the auspices of the Cannes International Film Festival. In 2007, he was named Best Director for his film “Autohystoria” at the 2007 Cinemanila International Film Festival. His film Independencia was the first Filipino film to be selected to the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, and his film with Adolfo Alix Jr., Manila, was also shown.

Artist Talk on July 18 (Saturday) is from 2-4pm. Fee is P120 per person. For inquiries, call Fanny at 631-2417 or email admin@lopez-museum.org.

Photo Update: Collection Management Seminar

Day 2 Pictures of the Collection Management Seminar held at the Lopez Museum on Friday, June 19, 2009

Group photo of participants and Lopez Museum and

Yuchengco Museum staff

Ms. Cedie L. Vargas (middle) Lopez Museum Director

Ricky Francisco (middle) Collection Management Consultant for the Lopez Museum

Photo Update: Art Talk with Jeff Khan

The Lopez Memorial Museum, in cooperation with Art Cabinet Philippines, featured Melbourne-based curator Jeff Khan in a talk on his role as Artistic Director of Next Wave, a multidisciplinary festival with 400 Australian and international artists. 2008 Singapore Biennale curator Joselina Cruz participated as reactor, sharing innovations and developments in the recent biennale themed Wonder and the current Philippine art scene.

The talk was presented on May 22, 2009 with Art Cabinet Philippines, an emerging visual arts organization that envisions the participation of Filipino visual artists in critical exhibitions and interactions and their achievement of international artistic acclaim.

Australian curator Jeff Khan

Australian curator Jeff Khan

Australian curator Jeff Khan and Philippine curator Joselina Cruz

Isa Lorenzo and other participants

Book Matters: The NBDB Book Club reads Mabi David's Unto Thee

Photo Update: Creative Writing for Kids Workshop

Participants going on a museum tour

Ms. Pacis with creative writing for teens participants

Ms. Carla Pacis with participants of Creative Writing for Kids Workshop

Photo Update: Classical Book Binding Workshop

The workshop on Classical Book Binding was conducted by Mr Loreto Apilado last May 16, 23 and 30, 9am-12noon. Among the participants were members of the Society of Filipino Archivists (Ms Emma Rey and Ms Kathrina Perocho) and enthusiasts such as Ana Patricia Sawit, Mona Caccam, Cecilia Lee, Eldie Matandag, and Susan Concepcion.

Mr. Apilado (middle) with the participants of the Classical Bookbinding Workshop last May 16, 23 and 30

Book binding participants at work

Coordinates and Tutelage: Maps and school text on exhibit

Students and lovers of geography, history, politics, art and education must delight in the Lopez Memorial Museum’s latest exhibits showcasing rare maps in one and school text in the other.

Maps are not just physical but charged, political delimitations of territory. The maps in the Lopez Museum collection, including a 1734 Murillo Velarde map of the Philippines, books on cartography and memorabilia items of Jose Rizal (such as his compass above) are featured in the exhibit Coordinates at the Rare Books gallery As the History of Cartography discussed, maps are not just artifacts but graphic representations that communicate through their shapes, sizes, orientation, position and relation of the different masses.

In Coordinates, viewers are asked to look at these markers in light of their original purpose, modes of production and context of use in order to recognize how these delineate what is within and what is without, what is ours and what is not, what is ‘we’ and what is other. Maps promote spatial understanding of the world, including one’s place in it as city dweller, national and kin to others living in an imagined region of commonality and shared desires.

At the Library, the exhibit  Tutelage  is a modest exhibition that assembles some 14 or so school texts and their accompanying images crafted by a generation of artists represented by such individuals as Fernando and Pablo Amorsolo. Focus is given to books from the American colonial and Commonwealth periods, and the early Philippine Republican administrations as these espouse the different views of the function of education and issues arising from it. Among these are the work of education in promoting progress and welfare of the country, developing the ideals of peace, moral character, and civic consciousness.  Supported by the State, education is an inherently ideological proposition. The exhibition also features works by sculptor Ikoy Ricio. 

Both exhibits will run until September 25, 2009 at the Lopez Memorial Museum, ground floor, Benpres Building, Exchange Road corner Meralco Avenue, Pasig City. Museum days and hours are Mondays to Saturdays, 8am-5pm, except holidays. For more information, call 6312417 or email admin@lopez-museum.org.ph.